Yes, apparently Mr. Genuis debated at length in high school and in university. He's quite proud of himself. That's fine. He has asked here about the education levels of public servants. They're very well educated, I assured him.
On Thursday, April 2, from 2 to 4 p.m., we had a study on the government's response to COVID-19. It was a set of meetings that I won't soon forget as a parliamentarian. We heard a number of individuals from the Canada Revenue Agency articulate their points of view. We had a number of folks from the Department of Employment and Social Development and from the Department of Finance who I've already mentioned, so I won't repeat them. It was an impressive group of people who, in the midst of carrying out all sorts of work on policy and program design, found time to appear here before the committee. I know they're expected to do that, Mr. Chair, but these are folks who are working 20-hour days and still finding ways to inform the committee about their work. I think they deserve respect, not just by acknowledging them here and now. They deserve the respect of being able to come here to committee to explain this issue that the opposition is so concerned about, instead of putting words in their mouth. That is effectively what the opposition wants to do by actively preventing them from coming to committee.
If we go with Mr. Gerretsen's motion, we have a fair outcome that allows the opposition to get answers to their questions in a way that does not silence our public servants.
I'll begin my conclusion from here, Mr. Chair.
Conservatives are refusing to engage at all. I hope that we start to see a different approach also taken by the NDP and the Bloc.
The members of the opposition are very fond of quoting the law clerk of the House of Commons who has said...and who carries out incredible service for all of us as parliamentarians and who serves the country as well. The Conservatives want to vote that down. Remember that Mr. Gerretsen's motion calls for the law clerk to appear, allowing all members, every single one of us, to engage. I call the NDP and the Bloc to support that. Unfortunately, I haven't heard very much on that point from either Mr. Ste-Marie or Mr. MacGregor.
Mr. Chair, we should not dither here. We should not waste our time. The end of Mr. Gerretsen's very reasonable motion asks that “debate on the main motion and the amendment from Mr. Poilievre be suspended, and that the chair be authorized to schedule these witnesses and convene a meeting to resume debate on Mr. Poilievre's motion once these meetings have taken place.”
This seems very reasonable to me, Mr. Chair. We ought to allow the clerk and analysts to do their important work and furnish us with the documents that this committee has not yet received.
Unfortunately, yet again, the opposition won't allow us to carry out the important work to be conducted here. That needs to be put on the record and recognized. We don't even know what they think or what their justification is for all of this. I hope that a member from the NDP and the Bloc—I've given up on the Conservatives—will come forward and tell this committee, their constituents and all Canadians watching at home what their view is, Mr. Chair.
I'll end my comments there. Thank you.